When purchasing articles that can be custom manufactured in a variety of colors, consumers often cannot see the articles in all of the available color choices due to inventory constraints. For example, when purchasing an automobile, dealerships most often cannot stock each model of automobile in each of its available color choices.
As a substitute, the consumer is shown a color chart showing the available colors for the particular article. The colors are typically printed onto a flat support surface and that surface, termed a color chip, is affixed to the color chart. A disadvantage of this arrangement is that the surfaces of the actual article, e.g. an automobile, onto which the color is applied is most often not entirely flat. Therefore, the flat color chip is not a true representation of how the color would appear on the particular article itself.